


like god's fingerprints in an infant's soul

by taronfirth



Series: plainly like a lover to me [3]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Soft Husbands, eggsy is harry's first kiss, harry was alone and eggsy thought 'we can't have that', time traveling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-08 23:24:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13468806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taronfirth/pseuds/taronfirth
Summary: The first time they met, Harry was six and Eggsy was twenty-eight.





	like god's fingerprints in an infant's soul

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from this poem by Christopher Poindexter: 
> 
> "Words become more  
> than words when one  
> feels them into  
> existence.  
> You, like god's fingerprints in  
> an infant's soul,  
> are written in me.  
> So too, are the words  
> I feel for you."

The first time they met, Harry was six and Eggsy was twenty-eight and to Harry, the man was just a mere stranger. He also wore a dark trench coat which was said to hide all of his secrets. Harry was about to scream out for his Mum when Eggsy hurriedly pulled out a large lollipop inside one of his many pockets to thrust it in Harry’s small hands. 

“I don’t like candies. They’re too sweet for my baby teeth,” he said seriously. 

Eggsy just smiled and asked him, “What do you like then?” 

“Chocolate and mint biscuits. But not the kind that smells like toothpaste,” he stuck out his tongue to indicate disgust. 

“Noted,” the man said and disappeared into thin air. 

Harry didn’t tell his Mum about this encounter, he knew nobody would believe his story, so he just placed the lollipop inside the fridge and forgot about it all together. 

 

 

Harry was fifteen and sobbing in his room when they met again. He almost fell out from his chair when the strange man in a suit and a trench coat popped out outside his windows, a small, awkward smile played on his lips. 

Wiping the tears on his face with his sleeves, Harry asked, “What the hell are you doing in my garden?” 

“Why are you crying?” The man tilted his head, concern showing unabashed. 

“It’s none of your business.” Harry looked away, sniffles a little. He was young, much too young, the innocence in his voice shatters the most tender part in Eggsy’s heart. 

“Tell me, I’ve got your brown and green treats.” He dangled his plastic bag from Tesco. 

“How do you know?” And that was how Eggsy got Harry to tell him about the bullies at school who hated the fact that Harry liked two things: butterflies and boys. 

Harry ate three biscuits, saved the rest for later, and Eggsy looked at him fondly as he petted Harry’s head. 

Harry let him. 

 

 

The third time they met, Harry was already an official Kingsman agent. He was twenty-three and his face was free of lines and exhaustion, his warm brown eyes still eager and bright, his smile still tugged at Eggsy’s heart. 

“Screw it. Let’s just blow it up and call it a day,” Harry said to Merlin and to himself. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, do you?” said Eggsy from the previously empty space to Harry’s right. His sudden appearance earned him a gun pointing straight to his head. Harry’s reflex had always been one of his strengths. 

“You. What are you doing here?” 

“You remember!” cried Eggsy, his grin incandescent. "You forgot about me that last time, yeah? It hurt me a bit, but I recovered pretty fast, like Rox said, because you were just a wee little kid with pudgy arms and cheeks.” 

“This is not where normal citizens should be running about. There’s a bomb inside that bank and everyone’s already evacuated, you should leave right now.” The spy lifted his chin as he withdrew the gun. 

“Oh, but not everyone,” Eggsy said slowly. Taking two small steps forward, he whispers, “Check for every nook and cranny: second rule of being a spy for dummies.”  

This time, he vaporised without a trace, and Harry returned to save one Lee Unwin and his mother. When he got home, there was a packet of biscuits inside his pocket. 

 

 

The next time they met, Harry was shot twice, one bullet had grazed his right leg, the other his left arm. His bulletproof suit took most of the damage, but a knife to his stomach proved to be near fatal. Help was coming, he knew; could he make it out alive, he wasn’t quite as sure. 

He lay limply on the tarmac, around him were bodies of his enemies, they were far more fortunate than him for their deaths were swift and painless. 

Harry’s eyes were open wide, taking in everything around him: the sky above him clear and blue, the sunlight blinding and warm, the breeze cool and teasing against his cheeks, he felt a soft hand touching his forehead and smelt a hint of wild flowers.   

“You’re not allowed to die, Harry,” cried a man crouching beside him. 

“Oh, you’re here,” smiled Harry, the blood in his mouth made it a bit harder to speak. 

“We haven’t even met yet. You’re not to die. Not on my watch.” And he opened his black suitcase to take out his tools. 

“What are you saying? We’ve met at least three times,” he said weakly. 

But the man didn’t hear him, he was too busy trying to keep Harry alive, and Harry was just trying to see his face.

When he woke up in the medical ward of the mansion, bandaged and thirsty as hell, he thought everything was simply a dream. Until he went to retrieve his personal effects and saw the crumpled packet of biscuits and a note inside his pocket. Harry smiled.

He was only thirty years old. 

 

 

They met again on Harry’s first honey trap mission, he was worrying himself sick. Everything was riding on this and he didn’t want to fail Arthur. His uncle was never a kind man when he was disappointed. 

But Harry knew nothing of the things lovers do, and even if he had seen movies, the romantic aspect of a relationship had never seem too appealing to him. Merlin said he would do fine, because with his looks, the boss’ brother would do the rest of the work for him without Harry even lifting a single finger. On the other hand, Merlin often lied about the amount of sugar he took in his tea, therefore his words were taken with a grain of salt.

“Nervous? Butterflies in your stomach?” giggled Eggsy when he closed the door to the hotel room. 

“Why are you here now?” groaned Harry from his place on the bed. 

“Because you need help.” 

“I do not. There’s absolutely nothing that you can do-” 

Without a single warning, his words were cut off by Eggsy’s mouth on his, the first contact of their lips sucked all the air from Harry’s lungs. Then Eggsy’s hands wormed their way into Harry’s hair and tugged, Harry melted as if he was of liquid and his lips pressed back firmly against Eggsy’s. 

A million thoughts crowded Harry’s mind which was, at that moment, entirely focused on cataloguing the softness of Eggsy’s lips and the faint suggestion of stubble on his jaw and how Eggsy still smelt of wild flowers and apparently he tasted like overly sweet candies and sour lemon drops. 

Eggsy pulled back slightly and Harry pressed forward to chase his lips, they kissed again, with a hint of urgency this time, it was sloppy and wet and Harry adored every minute of it. 

“Better yet?” asked Eggsy when they finally let go, but his arms were still on Harry’s lapels. 

“Not- erm, not too bad. I think.” 

“You think?” 

“I have no previous data to compare it with,” he said shyly. 

Eggsy just grinned wider and moved to fix his hair and his tie for him, humming while doing so. 

With a gentle tap to Harry’s shoulder, he winked and said, “Go get ‘im, tiger.” 

Harry Hart was thirty-two when he had his first kiss and he still didn’t know the name of the man who took it.

 

 

It was years until they had their first real encounter.

Harry was thirty-seven and he didn’t recognise Eggsy. And Eggsy was far too young to remember. 

The name Lee Unwin didn’t even do anything to jog Harry’s memory. 

 

 _Seventh time is a charm_ , people often said. 

People also often looked the same at age twenty-three and twenty-eight, not much physical change occurred during that time for anybody, if at all. 

And so, Harry laughed to himself bitterly, this was going to be a long day.    

 

 

Harry slammed the door to the lab, the two people inside jumped and moved to pull out their guns, only to be lowered once they saw who was coming in. 

“Which time is it now?” he asked, looking at Eggsy.

“Fifth? I think?” Eggsy grinned nervously but he stepped forward into Harry’s defence regardless. His fight-or-flight response just didn’t work around Harry anymore. 

“Good. Let’s stop right there.” 

“But I still want to see you in your 40s.” 

“I looked the same way I do now,” he said with an air of finality.  

“You were really adorable when you were six,” Eggsy sighed, his face spoke of acceptance.

“Why did you volunteer for this experiment?”  _Why did you appear in my life? Why did you affect me so much? Why did you let me wait for so long?_   

Eggsy cupped Harry’s face in his warm hands and said, “I realised I was in love with you when all of my decisions began to revolve around you. Joining Kingsman, killing Chester King and Valentine, moving to your house, going to Kentucky and finding that you’re still alive, kissing you and marrying you. My life’s never been the same the moment you stepped into it.”

“And-” Harry hesitated, “do you regret it?” 

Shaking his head, Eggsy beamed, “No. I just want to have a tiny presence in yours, is all. I tried to help when I could. You told me you were so alone, always, on the jet, remember? And it never quite fades into nothing, so when a chance came up, I just took it.” 

As he was deserted of languages and vocabulary to express his feelings, Harry simply held Eggsy in his arms and squeezed him. 

 _Thank you,_  he meant to say.  _I don’t believe I even come close to deserving you._

Eggsy kissed his cheeks as an answer.  _The feeling is mutual, love._

**Author's Note:**

> “Screw it. Let’s just blow it up and call it a day.” and “I realised I was in love with you when all of my decisions began to revolve around you." are in one prompt I got on tumblr, I could choose one to write but I chose both because I'm a fool apparently.
> 
> I'm darcyfirth on tumblr if you wanna chat about Hartwin :D


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